Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Cthulukelele]

Wish you the best of luck

 

[vlangel]

I am running Ozone but the toxins seem to stay in the tank long enough to kill most things.
I have to kill it out of the tank.

The hardest part is that this tank is old so the corals are not on plugs but growing on the rock. I will need to cut them all off the rock and re glue them on clean rock. A real pain.

I will get through it. I have to collect about 80 gallons of water because when this sponge dyes, I will have to change all of the water in the vat.

Paul, instead of going to the trouble of collecting the water from the ocean for the vat to remove the sponge, would it be easier to just use Instant Ocean to mix your own? I assume that you are going to discard that water anyway after the rock has been cleaned of the invasive sponge.

 

[Nano_Man]

Congratulations on running your reef for that many years

 

[BurgerFish]

But how those toxic sponges are controlled in the real reef?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

But how those toxic sponges are controlled in the real reef?

It depends on the area, but I also have some sponge similar to @Paul B. I know it is local to Caribbean waters, so I keep a Oreaster reticulatus in my sump and will move rocks down there about once a week for it to clean them off. It is all they eat, so sometimes I have to supplement it with other sponges that I collect when I go to FL. But it gets the job done for me for the rocks I want cleaned off. I do plan to eradicate it at some point, but will need to move my harlequin pair out of the DT before I can move over the starfish. May also have to move some corals out, as they some of them also.

 

[Paul B]

Vlangel I can use Instant Ocean and I do have some. But the ocean is like 90 yards away so it's just easier to fill 10 gallon buckets and bring it home. I pump it from my Jeep into my workshop where my tank is. I can fit 40 gallons into my Jeep every load which takes about 20 minutes total so it is quicker than using ASW and of course, free..

I have a big Styrofoam cooler that I will use to put the sponge encrusted rock in for a test. I also bought carbon to put in a Eheim canister filter to use on that "tank". I will keep it in the dark until the sponge is gone, then do more pieces. This may take a year. :flushed-face:


I just picked up this cool wrasse. It is some kind of Dragon Wrasse but I never saw one with such long "horns". Very cool. I also "stupidly" got a Twin Spot Wrasse" even though my tank is not really suitable for them because I don't use sand. But for $10.00 I couldn't resist.

I will "quarantine" them for about ten more minutes, they throw, I mean gently place them in my tank.

 

[Paul B]

In the sea there are probably creatures like turtles that can eat it. I really don't know.

 

[Paul B]

He is in and seems happy as he hunts for food.

 

[Cthulukelele]

He is in and seems happy as he hunts for food.

Dragon wrasse are so awesome thats a particularly attractive one

 

[Paul B]

I am not crazy about Dragon Wrasses but as you said, this one is a different species. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[vlangel]

I love those dragon wrasses. I think they look exotic.

 

[Jekyl]

Have you considered dumping all of the live rock and replacing with

https://gulfliverock.com/premium-deco-live-rock
PS: Next day air cargo is $80 for first 100 pounds and $0.45 per pound after 100 pounds.

Paul's rock is at least twice as mature as that rock lol

 

[Kmst80]

Paul's rock is at least twice as mature as that rock lol

Isn't The Rock just diy concretemix a la Paul. Pretty sure fish is the only thing Paul buys from a Lfs

 

[Subsea]

Paul's rock is at least twice as mature as that rock lol

Paul might be twice as old as Gulf Live Rock. I have seen Paul’s rock while standing in his workshop, except it didn’t smell varnish when I was there in August

 

[fishmonkey]

Hey @Paul B just wondering your thoughts on AFCI and GFCI. Does your tank run on these?

 

[Paul B]

Have you considered dumping all of the live rock and replacing with

No, at my age I am not dumping anything. In about 3 weeks the tank will be 52 years old and I now consider it a success so whatever happens, it's all good. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

I am trying a few things and I love to experiment. :)

Hey @Paul B just wondering your thoughts on AFCI and GFCI. Does your tank run on these?

I will get back to this. Time for my morning walk. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[BurgerFish]

fish is the only thing Paul buys from a Lfs

and sponges :face-with-rolling-eyes:

 

[Paul B]

Hey @Paul B just wondering your thoughts on AFCI and GFCI. Does your tank run on these?

I run a GFCI, thats about all the technology I have. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Paul B]

I am in the process of mixing a lot of ASW. I am going to make the biggest water change I ever had, maybe 80 gallons because I think all the silicates from my NSW are feeding this invasive sponge. I will change the water then in the old water in a huge vat I will put the sponge rock in the dark until the sponge croaks.

I will have enough clean rock from the bottom of my aquascape to keep the fish happy and I also have some dry rock laying around if needed.
I have not cleaned my tank in the 5 years I am here and a undergravel filter needs this cleaning eventually anyway so this will give me an opportunity to do this.

Unfortunately I will lose many corals and anemones because none of my corals are on those frag things and all of them are growing on the rock so I will have to cut off what I can save and leave them in the tank. I can't save them all as they are stuck everywhere but it is what it is.

I only have enough capacity to hold about 80 gallons of water so I will need to buy another garbage can or big vat to do such a large change because I need to save water to put the rock in and due to the sponge hopefully disintegrating, I will need to change that water often.

After all the sponge is eliminated, I will again start using NSW for water changes.

I am also getting much to old to do this myself. :rolleyes:

 

[atoll]

FTS this evening, we'll it's 8-15pm here in the UK. Tank looking good but I am getting corals fighting one another now.